LIVING VIRTUOUSLY: Chapter 4 VIRTUOUS COMMITMENTS

Back when I first got married, I was working full time as a teacher. I took a lot of pride in my job and devoted hours outside of work to my job. It did not matter, I worked until late at night and through the entire weekend. Even if my husband and I were together I only talked about work, or I was actively grading papers and creating lesson plans while he was talking.

As you can imagine with this type of behavior, it did not take too long before it affected my marriage and my home. I was a neat freak from the get-go; however, during this time my house fell to the wayside. Dishes piled up. Laundry sat for days. But my house was only one aspect of where the damage was being done.

My marriage suffered. My husband only got what was left of me after handling students all day, after I attended meeting after meeting, and then all of the work I put into my job. I was too tired to talk and too tired to hang out.

He saw me tired, grumpy, and absolutely unmotivated as a wife and as a homemaker.

His feelings were hurt because he was rarely the recipient of my affections and attention. It is hard to show somebody you love them when they end up not being your number focus. After my wake up call, I realized that everything I had been doing was damaging my home and marriage.

And as women we tend to throw ourselves into whatever we’re doing; our jobs, our kids, our friends, church, and so many other activities. However, our main responsibility are being the keeper of our home and pouring our resources into our families and home. They deserve the best of our time, energy, love, and prayers.

In Living Virtuously: A Wife’s Complete Guide to Keeping Her Heart and Home, Erin Harrison helps us to understand that a husband must have a wife that he is able to trust in. She must bel able to manage her time and pour herself into her role as the keeper of the home.

This week in our book study, we read Chapter 4 and we learned that in order to make our home and family thrive that we must be trustworthy and focus on our families and homes first.